Coward, Anonymous writes:Our solar system is thought to have begun billions of years ago as a protoplanetary disk. Over time, gravity caused this matter to clump together and eventually form planets. There is debate over the process and its duration, with previous studies suggesting several ten million years until the initially dry Earth was formed. Water was delivered at the end of this period.A new article in Science Advances (open) describes Iron isotope evidence for very rapid accretion and differentiation of the proto-Earth.
canopic jug writes:Debian developerJonathan Carter was recently given a MIPS64-based motherboard which he ran through its paces. The board has a Loongson processor which is intended for both general purpose and embedded processing.
Nuke writes:The construction of HS2, a high speed rail link between London and the north of England, has been approved. The announcement was made by Boris Johnson yesterday. Phase 1, due for completion in 2028 at the earliest, will be between London and Birmingham; Phase 2, due in 2035 at the earliest, will be two separate lines onwards to Manchester and Leeds.The trains will travel at up to 250 mph. They will otherwise be conventional, and will take electrical power from overhead catenary. The line will have connections with existing ones, enabling some trains to continue at lower speeds to further destinations, such as Liverpool and Scotland.The routes will be broadly parallel with existing ones, which are generally running at full capacity. Rail passenger travel in the UK has greatly increased in recent years and this, rather than the reduction in journey times, is the main driver for the project.Note : It is called HS2 because it is the second high speed line in the UK, HS1 being the link from St. Pancras International railway station in central London to the Channel Tunnel.Original SubmissionRead more of this story at SoylentNews.
martyb writes:Each year, the GSMA (GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) Association) holds three MWC (Mobile World Congress) events. The next is MWC Barcelona and is scheduled for 24-27 February 2020 in Barcelona, Spain. The next event scheduled for this year is MWC Shanghai 2020, scheduled for 30 June - 2 July 2020 in Shanghai, China. And rounding out 2020 is the last event, MWC Los Angeles, California on 28-30 October 2020.Since 2011, MWC Barcelona has been known as the GSMA Mobile World Capital. It is the oldest and largest of the MWC series, so some of the largest mobile product announcements occur at this event. The 2018 event attracted attendees around the world. Approximately half of the attendees hold senior positions in their firms. In other words, in the mobile market, MWC Barcelona is a "Really Big Deal."That was all history. The recent outbreak of the 2019-nCoV Coronovirus has made quite a stir worldwide. Major players in the mobile arena are concerned about sending their representatives to a venue with approximately 100,000 attendees drawn from all around the world.Major companies in the mobile space have recently announced plans to either skip MWC Barcelona entirely or, in some cases, make presentations remotely. These include: including Intel, TCL, Sony, Amazon, Samsung, Nvidia, Ericsson Vivo, and MediaTek among many others.[...] It will be "interesting" to see what the follow-on effects will be from the reduced attendance. The June MWC is scheduled for Shanghai (a major city in China - the country that is the apparent source of the 2019-nCov coronoavirus and imposing major quarantines trying to stem its spread). Thus, unless 2019-nCoV is brought under control in record time, things do not look good for those who were diverted from Barcelona to look forward to making up the difference 4 months later. That leaves waiting for MWC LA at the end of October, or making more one-on-one connections to work out buying and selling decisions.[Editors' Note: The World Health Organisation has formally renamed the virus to COVID-19]Read more of this story at SoylentNews.
quietus writes:Germany's economy nowadays emits as much carbon dioxide as it did in the 1950s, when it was 10 times smaller.According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), carbon dioxide emissions trends for 2019 suggest clean energy transitions are underway. Global power sector emissions declined by some 170 Mt, or 1.2%, with the biggest falls taking place in the advanced economies of the European Union, Japan and the United States. There, CO2 emissions are now at levels not seen since the late 1980s, when electricity demand was one-third lower.In these advanced economies, the average CO2 emissions intensity of electricity generation declined by nearly 6.5% in 2019. This is a rate three times faster than the average over the past decade.This decline is driven by a switch from coal to natural gas, a rise in nuclear power and weaker electricity demand, combined with the seemingly unstoppable growth in renewables. These now constitute over 40% of the energy mix in Germany (wind power +11%) and the United Kingdom, where rapid expansion in offshore wind power generation is happening.The bummer lies with the rest of the world.There emissions continue to expand with close to 400 Mt last year. About 80% of that increase is happening in Asia. Coal demand here continues to expand, accounting for over 50% of energy use.Original SubmissionRead more of this story at SoylentNews.
takyon writes:SK Hynix has licensed technology that could enable the production of 16-layer High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) stacks. Bandwidth could also be increased by a superior interconnect density:
spiraldancing writes:Discovery of a North American apex predator 16 million years older than Tyrannosaurus rex.https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/feb/10/reaper-of-death-t-rex-dinosaur-species-canada:
upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Bytram:Choosing common pain relievers: It's complicated: Researchers examine benefits and risks of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs:
Coronavirus RoundupBoth c0lo and takyon write in with today's coronavirus collection of stories:c0lo writes:Why are children 'missing' from coronavirus outbreak cases?
martyb writes:Wacom Tablet Data Exfiltration Raises Security Concerns:[Editors' Note UPDATE 200211-14:16]: It has been pointed out that this story is a duplicate of a previous story. The editor concerned will be made to sit on the naughty step for 15 minutes.]
martyb writes:Breathing may change your mind about free will: Do you think that you are clicking on that button when your mind decides to do so? Think again: